Meeting of Kings
by Night Empress of the Moon
Summary: Thirty years after the supposed death of the Demon Emperor Lelouch, all of the main players in the rebellion and those close to him have gathered at a certain orange farm to talk about what happened all those years ago and to remiss about a demon and a witch none of them have seen since. But they are in for a surprise when the objects of their discussion show up, not dead. Post-R2.
1. Prologue: Meeting of Old and New

**Prologue**

**Meeting of Old and New**

On a bright and clear spring day, three figures can be seen in a slightly worn car. In the driver's seat is a seemingly young man in simple yet slightly elegant clothing with a wide-brimmed hat covering his face, which currently has an annoyed yet enduring expression as he is informed, against his will, about the glory and wonder that is pizza by the two other occupants in the back of the vehicle. Sitting amongst the numerous boxes of pizza is a seemingly young woman with long lime-green hair pulled behind her in a lose braid and golden eyes that are far too old to belong to one looking so young. She, like the man driving the car, is clothed simply, yet it only serves to accentuate her natural beauty, and her face is alight with love for the delicious cheese-covered pie currently resting in her lap as well as love for the small child of about four years of age currently babbling away to her mother and father about pizza. The young girl in question is clearly her mother's daughter; resembling her in every way, save for her eyes, which are a brilliant amethyst so like her father's. Though unlike her mother, she does not have a piece of the delectable tomato-y cheesy treat as she does not want to ruin her new dress that she had coerced her beloved father into purchasing for her when she saw it in a small store in the town which the family had left only a half-day ago. They had been there for a week long pizza convention featuring Cheese-kun that the mother and daughter simply could not miss.

"How much longer 'tiw we're home, Papa?" the little girl asks out of the blue.

The man smiles slightly and says kindly, "Look ahead, sweetheart. We're almost there."

And indeed they were. The pizza filled vehicle is quickly approaching a farm, an orange farm to be exact, which has been their home for the entirety of the young girl's short life. As the car pulls up in front of the rather large house, the woman has to hold her daughter to prevent her from running out of the car (and knocking over the pizza boxes) to her beloved aunts, uncle, and cousin, none of whom she was in fact related to by blood or any other way. When the car is parked in such a way so that it will be easiest to move the numerous pizzas from the vehicle to the kitchen in the back of the house, the woman releases the wiggling little girl, which results in said little girl speeding out of the car and into the house shouting for the only other people she has ever had long-term contact with.

As the man gets out of the car, and then, being the gentleman that he is, helped his wife carry the pizza boxes in to the kitchen. He is so engrossed in trying not to drop any of the boxes that he fails to notice the unusual quiet of the normally buzzing house, as it is about time for lunch. When he has finally made it to the kitchen and sat the pizza boxes on the counter so that it is very unlikely that they would fall in the next hundred years, even though they really only need to hold out for about another hour or two, if that, a sudden scream sounded from the door leading back of the property in the next room. The man immediately rushes to the source of the sound, removing the purple contacts in both of his eyes, fully ready to destroy the culprit who dared do anything to his precious little girl. The site that meets him is not at all what he expects. Instead of an attacker and his daughter, he instead finds twenty-two faces contorted in absolute shock, four faces with very nervous expressions, and his daughter trying to decide if she is scared or excited with all of these new people suddenly showing up in her backyard previously enjoying a picnic.

"Lelouch! What is it! I heard Addy's scream! Where is Jeremiah and… Oh no," Cecilia, known to most as C2 or simply the Witch, who had rushed out to her husband and daughter, ready to attack like her beloved to defend their child, freezes in shock and minor dismay. She glances at her husband, not surprised to find utter shock etched in his face, combined with terror and slight joy at seeing the people in front of him, one person in particular. Such a face does not suit him, Lelouch, formally Lelouch vi Britannia, the Former Ninety-Ninth Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, the Former Second Supreme Council Chairman of the United Federation of Nations, the Former Leader and CEO of The Black Knights, and the Former Vice-President of the Student Council at Ashford Academy, also known as Zero and the greatest unsung hero of the world, is a man to be feared and admired, though one would never guess that the man who is hastily putting the contacts back in his eyes to cover up the twin red Geass symbols in them, is the same Demon Emperor who destroyed the world and then recreated it by dying in front of the very world he terrorized.

"B-brother?!" the soft voice comes from a middle-aged woman with long, wavy, light-brown hair that has slight streaks of gray, her pale amethyst eyes alight with shock and hope that said eyes are not lying to her and it really is her beloved older brother whom, until this very moment, she had thought dead and lost to her forever. "Is… is it really you?! Can it be…" And with tears in her eyes, she rises up on shaking legs and runs to the raven-haired, amethyst-eyed man who she had been mourning for the past thirty years sense his supposed death, wrapping her arms around him and weeping into his chest, chanting over and over, "You're alive! You're really alive!"

This snaps Lelouch out of his shock and, as he returns his beloved little sister's embrace, he smiles softly with tears in his eyes, as he never thought he would see her in person ever again in his life, whispering into her hair, "Yes, I'm alive… Nunnally"


	2. Chapter One: Meeting of an Enchantress

**Chapter One**

**Meeting of an Enchantress**

Adalice, known to her family as Addy or the Enchantress, is a very smart four year old girl. She knows how to count to twenty, how to make her father do almost anything for her, and she knows that no other women besides her mother, and occasionally her aunties, are supposed to touch, much less hug, her Papa. And this is why, when she sees a strange woman who looked vaguely familiar (although Addy cannot figure out where she has seen this well-dressed woman before) running up to _her_ Papa and embracing him like they have known each other all their lives, and then her father does not push her away and instead embraces the stranger in the same familiar manner. As a last hope, Addy looks up at Mommy, fully expecting her very outspoken mother to promptly whack Papa on the head and pull the other-woman-who-is-not-Mommy-or-Auntie-Sayo-or-Auntie-Aya away and push her into the grass. When she sees instead is her mother's soft, gentle smile that she only uses for special occasions, making no move to stop her husband from hugging a woman who is not her, Addy promptly decides that if Mommy is not going to do something about this atrocity, then she will. She does this by yanking the skirt of the lady, expecting the woman to fall back into the much-too-soft green grass, but instead the other-woman-who-is-not-Mommy-or-Auntie-Sayo-or-Auntie-Aya is stopped from doing as expected by none other than Papa himself.

The last thing that Lelouch expects is for his reunion with his beloved little sister, who is not so little anymore, to be abruptly cut off by her almost falling and possibly messing up her beautiful dress (something that is absolutely appalling to the Demon). Thankfully, he catches his successor to the throne before she falls, and once he is sure that she is safe on her feet and in no more danger of any kind, he looks around to find what could have caused the Empress to fall backwards. What he finds is his young daughter looking up at him with a pouting, perturbed expression on her adorable little face. Now, at any other time, he would have silently gushed over the cuteness that was Addy trying to look serious, but this was not any other time. His daughter could have seriously injured his sister, something that he had to make the young girl understand.

"Addy," he said sternly, but not unkindly, "why did you try to pull Nunnally backwards? You know better than that. She could have gotten hurt."

The little girl looked up at her father, not understanding what she did wrong, and said strongly, "But Papa, she's hugging you. Mommy said that the only girws awowed to hug you are Mommy or Auntie Sayo or Auntie Aya. Who's she?"

It is in this moment that many separate, yet interrelated, events occur simultaneously. The twenty-one others that had been in shock have recovered and now have very different expressions, depending on the person. Two scientists, one male and one female, have varying degrees of fascination and a desire to experiment on their faces, while the other woman sitting beside the man has an expression of incredulousness at the two next to her. _A man that we all thought dead has just appeared right in front of us, looking no older than he did thirty years ago, and all they can think about is experiments? They really are hopeless._ Near them, another female scientist and a former prince stare calmly at the Demon, the Witch, and the young Enchantress with the Empress, the woman clam because she has known all along that there was a chance that _he_ had survived and the male because his Master had not commanded him to do anything yet. On the other side of the scientist woman, a middle-aged couple both have tears in their eyes at the reappearance of their old friend. Sitting diagonally from them are two Japanese men and a former Britannian Baroness, with one of the men and his wife both having small smiles on both of their faces at the site of the former Zero and the other man trying (and failing) to not cry the site of his former leader and idol. Two more Japanese persons, a Commander and his wife, a Captain, have the same reaction as the other couple, both happy, yet a bit wiry at seeing the Demon Emperor alive. The other woman sitting with them, a Lady in both name and manner, can hardly contain her joy at seeing her first love alive and well, looking no older than when she saw him last. On the other side of the Lady is her dearest friend, a Chinese woman and her husband and main guard, the white haired Empress with a smile on her face and the other two eyeing the Demon and Witch with joy combined with a bit of trepidation.

Finally, four Knights and a Princess look on, the black-haired male Knight with the same reaction as the two Chinese guards, while the blond Knight is torn between being happy for his wife at finding her old friend and leader alive and worry at what this might mean. The woman in question, a red-haired female Knight, is holding back tears of joy at the site of dear friends alive, while the older woman next to her is doing the same, yet the Princess is also very wiry of the younger brother that is called a Demon. The last Knight, a man whose face is most often hidden behind the mask that his best friend originated, as he comes out of his shock, immediately moves to the side of his wife and Empress with his sword drawn, to protect both her and the friend whom he still considers a brother, the Pizza-Obsessed Witch with whom he had the most interesting of conversations during the time when they were on the same side so long ago, and the little girl that he had no idea existed until that moment. The brown-haired Knight is accompanied by a blue-haired cyborg, his ninja/maid wife, a pink-haired Former Knight, and an eleven year old boy; all of them determined to protect the Demon, Witch, Enchantress, and Empress at all costs. And it is in this moment that Nunnally vi Britannia, the One-Hundredth Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire, the Former Viceroy of Area Eleven, and the Former Reformer of the Special Administrative Zone of Japan, realizes that she has the most adorable little niece, next to her other two half-nieces; yet this little girl is special, as she is the daughter of her beloved older brother.

Suddenly, a rich voice breaks the silence, "Addy, this is your Aunt Nunnally. She is my younger sister."

"Hello Addy, it's very nice to meet you. You can just call me Nunna, if you want," Nunnally says gently, crouching down to be at eye level with the child.

The girl in question stares at the woman before her, taking in this new knowledge quietly, before she sticks out one small hand and says mater-a-fact-ly, "Hewo, my name's Adawice, but you can call me Addy. I am four."

Nunnally is now even more enchanted with little Addy, if such a thing is possible, and she promptly wraps the girl in a warm hug, which the child hesitantly returns, then with a little more enthusiasm, as it has just clicked in her small brain that she now has another Auntie to spoil her rotten.

Now during this little exchange, Lelouch and Cecilia quickly share looks with four of the people standing on guard around them, realizing that they need to talk without Addy or Nunnally around to hear and interfere, as the exchange could become a bit violent, and no one wants to see the Empress's reaction to her brother being wounded in front of her again. The Witch then sees the exchange between her daughter and her younger-sister-in-law, glances at the boy with pale red hair, and the solution becomes clear to her.

"Addy, Thomas how about the three of us go and put those Cheese-kuns up and then bring the pizzas out here for everyone. And would you come with us, Nunnally? Addy seems to be rather attached to you all of the sudden," the Witch says with slight excitement for the orange plushies in the trunk of the car and the cheesy, tomato-y pies on the counters, knowing that her daughter shares her feelings and that Nunnally nor the boy is not likely to refuse a request such as this, and that one so young should not see whatever will occur between those left behind.

The little Enchantress jumps out of her Aunt's arms and quickly grabs her hand and the hand of her cousin, pulling them towards the door leading to her beloved pizza and Cheese-kun. Cecilia smiles slightly at this, then follows the three, who are talking adamantly about the cheesy goodness's, with Addy doing most of the talking and Nunnally and Thomas doing most of the enduring listing. Right before she reaches the door, the Witch looks back at her husband and mouths, _Ten minutes_. The Demon nods and then turns to face his retribution for surviving the Zero Requiem.


	3. Chapter Two: Meeting of Confrontation

**Chapter Two**

**Meeting of Confrontation**

In his life, Jeremiah Gottwald, also known as Orange or Uncle Jerrmy Miss Addy, has seen and done many things, both good, bad, and sometimes somewhere in between. As such, it makes sense that he has regrets from some of the actions that he has taken, but the two things that he will never regret are simple; he will never regret adopting the little boy he found on the side of the road when he and his wife were in town for various necessities. The second thing that he will never regret is helping Master Lelouch in any way he possibly can until the day he dies. Helping the Demon also, of course, includes protecting him from any and all harm, something that the orange farmer, formerly a military officer, is only too happy to do. This feeling is shared in full by his wife, Sayoko Gottwald (née Shinozaki), the 37th Successor of the Shinozaki School and a "supermaid," known affectionately as Auntie Sayo to the little Miss. This sentiment is also shared by Jeremiah's best, and arguably only, friend Anya Alstreim or Auntie Aya to the young Enchantress, the Former Knight of Six, and all three of them are ready to do whatever it takes to make sure that Master Lelouch does not get killed by the various people sitting in their backyard.

So it comes as a great surprise when the Master in question says, in a voice he has not used in almost thirty years, "Jeremiah, Sayoko, Anya, stand down."

It is not necessarily the person speaking that surprises the protectors, but the voice itself. This is the voice that had lead a small, failing rebellion to be the most powerful military force in the world, the voice that took over the world with just a simple command, the voice that terrorized millions of innocent people, the voice that the Lelouch had not used since he was an Emperor all those years ago.

"B-But... Master Lelouch…"

"Enough. There is no reason for you to stand on guard. Stand. Down."

Reluctantly, the three of them move aside, leaving the Demon and the Knight to face the rest. Lelouch steps forward steadily, confidently, and moves to stand beside his long-time best friend.

"Suzaku," Lelouch says calmly, "put your sword down. You have already fought most of those here at my behest and for the sake of the world. You have done enough for me. Thank you."

Like the others, the Knight does not want to leave the side of the Demon, but his orders are clear and sound. And it is also true that he does not wish to fight any of the other people gathered, yet he will if it means his friend's safety.

"No. I won't let you be killed again on my watch. Please," Suzaku Kururugi, the Former Knight of Zero and the Former Knight of Former Third Princess Euphemia li Britannia, known to the world as Zero, pleads with his friend, "I don't want to see you die again. And Nunna would never forgive me if I didn't protect her beloved older brother."

At this, the former Emperor smiles slightly, which is more of a smirk, and says, "Do you honestly think that I would ever go into battle unprepared? And besides," as he speaks Lelouch undoes the first three buttons on his high-collar shirt, showing the red Geass Code on his lower neck to the crowd, "dying is no longer possible for me."

_So, you did take your father's Code. I had always wondered…_ Suzaku steps back, lowering his sword, now that it is assured that the Demon cannot die. The moment that the sword is back in its sheath, a black and brown blur rushes past the current Zero and grabs onto the leg of the original wearer of the legendary mask.

"Master Zero! You're alive!" Shinichirō Tamaki, one of the more boisterous members of the Black Knights, cries with joy at the sight of his idol and former Leader. Said Leader looks down in slight exasperation, saying, "Well, you have not changed much, Tamaki."

The current Prime Minister of Japan, the best friend of the man that is currently clinging to the leg of their former leader, sighs as he shakes his head. _No, Zero, he hasn't changed at all._ He stands up and walks quickly to the pathetic sight, grabbing Tamaki's collar, and dragging him back to his seat. The Black Knights member complains and protests the whole few feet back, but one look from his friend and he is sitting quietly in his seat like a child that had just been caught doing something bad by their parents.

"Sorry about that, Lelouch. I'm afraid that he's just a bit overwhelmed. I think we all are. Now," the Ace of the Black Knights says in a deceptively calm voice, "on to a more important matter."

_I'm not important matter? Thanks a lot, Kallen_, Tamaki thinks, pouting. He does not dare say his thoughts out loud, though. He would like to keep all of his limbs intact, thank you very much. As if she heard his thoughts, the female Knight turns to glare at him, as if she is daring him to make one move to defy her or the man sitting beside him.

"What are you doing here? And how could you not tell us that you were alive?! Don't you know how much we've all missed you?! Have you just been sitting here, chilling out, while the rest of us fixed the world that _you_ left?! How could you do this to them, to Nunnally… to me? Why, Lelouch?" By the time she is finished, Lady Kallen Kōzuki-Weinberg, the Captain of the Zero Squad and the Ace of the Black Knights, has tears in her eyes, even though she is determined not to let them spill over.

"Kallen. You have not changed much either, besides the obvious. You're still as head strong as ever. I'm truly glad to see that," the Demon says fondly; glad to see that the friend he held so dear has not been overcome with the duties that he had left for the Black Knights, "but this was the only way for the world to progress, and the only way for me to be punished for my sins. Though now, it looks like my sentence has been changed."

The Lady Knightmare Frame Pilot closes her eyes, and then opens them with tears, a small smile gracing her face. She shakes her head slightly as she says, "You're still the same old Lelouch, always thinking of elaborate plans that somehow work. But this one was the most stupid of them all. I should punch you in the face for all of the trouble that you've put the rest of us through, but I won't. I don't want to ruin this reunion."

"Thank you, Kallen. And now," the former Demon Emperor turns slightly to look at the scientists, "Lloyd, Cécile, Rakshata, Nina. If you even think about making a move towards my daughter or my wife, you know what I am capable of. You will not get off lightly for trying to experiment on my family. Don't try to deny it," he says when the scientists open their mouths, trying to think of an excuse that does not sound as false as it is, "your eyes betray you."

"All right, fine. No experiments. Oh, you do like to ruin my fun, don't you," the Former Earl says, pouting.

"Actually, that goes for all of you. Make a threating move towards my family and you will regret it."

Suddenly, a knife flies past Suzaku and everyone watches as it lands right in the middle of the Demon's forehead. The silence is louder than anything the Knight has ever heard as the former Emperor falls back onto the grass, an expression of nonchalance on his face. The yard is as quiet as a grave when Lelouch reaches up to pull the offensive blade out of his head.

"Very nice throw, Sister. But I am afraid that such trivial things are useless against me," the Demon says as he rises from the ground, blood dripping down his handsome face.

"You threatened us. My reaction was necessary to prove that you were telling the truth. Now we know you are," Princess Cornelia "The Goddess of Victory" "The Witch of Britannia" li Britannia Guilford, the Former Second Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire and Former Chief General of the Imperial Army of Britannia, says firmly, but not unkindly, to her younger brother.

"Well, I suppose that you all must have leftover hostile feelings from the Zero Requiem and preceding events and Nunnally and Addy are inside. Come at me with everything you have," Lelouch says, smirking.

With that, the Imperial Consort of the United States of China runs his sword through the Former Ninety-Ninth Emperor of Britannia.

"Sorry, Lelouch, but you're not the only one with a wife and daughter. One of which you traumatized. Several times. This is for her. And for all of the innocents that died during your Requiem."

With this, the Demon is slain for the second that day; but not the last. There are others gathered in the yard that have past issues with the Former Emperor, problems that cannot be rectified with a simple "sorry." After all, past transgressions do have a way with catching up with the one who committed them. This is most certainly true for Lelouch, for he has killed millions of people with only a few words, turned the whole world against him, and then "died" to save a world that hated him, leaving a small few who grieved him deeply, all of whom are at the orange farm today..

Then a muffled gunshot is heard from the gun of a Commander of the Black Knights.

"You betrayed the Black Knights, even if you did it to save the world, the fact remains that you betrayed us. Now we're even, Zero."

The young-looking raven-haired man closes his eyes and tries to catch his breath. Even if he cannot die, the pain is still there, from the knife, sword, and gun.

"Are you all done now? Can't you see that he's suffered enough, leave him be, please," pleads the best friend of the Demon, who has been standing by watching as the man he could call a brother is killed again before his eyes. When no one else makes a move to harm the Former Emperor, so the supermaid walks up to her Master and says, "I'll get you a change of clothing, Master Lelouch. Please, wait here."

Lelouch knows better that to argue with Sayoko when she is like this, it is like arguing with a wall, absolutely useless. He rises from the ground to move to the small shed a few meters away; and not a moment too soon, for they hear a small voice call out, "We have the pizza!"


	4. Chapter Three: Meeting of Masters

**Chapter Three**

**Meeting of Masters**

When that odd couple of a cyborg and a maid picked him up from the side of the road all those years ago, Thomas Jameson Gottwald never would have imagined that he would be showing the One-Hundredth Empress of Britannia around his house along with the little girl that is the closest thing that he has to a sibling and Mistress Cecilia. Then again, he did not think that he would be doing much of anything after his birth parents died and left him with nothing but an empty, burnt out house, nowhere to go, and no one to take care of the small five-year-old boy. Of course, he had always heard stories of the strange people living at the orange farm in the near middle of nowhere. It had always been rumored that the inhabitants were supporters of the Demon Emperor and that the reason that they lived there was that they were banished from the rest of the world and working on a farm is their punishment. But none of that mattered before to the little boy, after all, he was too young to understand what any of the rumors really meant; then his home was destroyed with his parents inside, leaving him with the strange orange farm as his only option for help. If only he had not been so small, so young, he might have made it all the way there, yet his small body had been pushed to the brink of absolute exhaustion, both physically and mentally. He had collapsed on the side of the road, certain in his five-year-old mind that he was going to die just like his parents had earlier that day, but fate had other ideas.

That day was the day that, for no real reason at all; Jeremiah and Sayoko Gottwald had decided to take a walk together, enjoying the peace of the day. Such a peaceful day had not come upon them in quite a while so everyone at the orange farm had decided to take the day off, with Anya catching up on her rest and the Mistress not-so-discreetly making the Master make her all the pizza that she could eat, which is quite a lot. And though it would have been easiest to stay at the farm and walk around the orchard, the couple had decided to venture out to the world, or at least out on the long road leading away from their home. No one is normally on this particular road, as it is rather old, covered in dirt, and only goes from the far away town up to the orange farm, and so they are extremely surprised to find a little boy covered in ash, dirt, and a bit of blood passed out on the roadside. When they looked around and saw that there was not a soul to be found anywhere in eyesight, they silently decided to take the child home with them to at least clean him up to a presentable state, yet he ended up staying much longer.

When he woke up, Thomas had found himself in a strange place with strange people. The first person he saw was a maid, a Japanese maid. He had never seen anyone who was not Britannian living so far out in the country, but the woman spoke to him in his language and then she called for someone, that someone turned out to be a cyborg, her husband, she explained. Just as Thomas had never seen a foreign person in his short life, he had certainly never seen a cyborg. At first the little boy had been frightened, but when the maid-woman reprimanded the cyborg-man for appearing so frightening to a child and the man pouted like _he_ was the child, the boy saw that despite their odd appearance, they acted just like his parents. His parents. His dead parents. The parents who had died in the fire, the fire that took his home. The fire that left him all alone. At these thoughts, Thomas started to cry, weeping for all that he had lost. Sayoko wrapped her arms around the small boy, whispering comforting words to the child they had found and her heart went out to him as he informed her and Jeremiah of what had happened to him. When the boy had cried himself back to sleep, she left him with her husband and went down where the other three occupants of the house were gathered.

After the situation was explained Lelouch and Cecilia decided to go and investigate the house, saying that it might be better if the Demon Emperor was not there when the boy woke up. They found that it was exactly as Thomas had said and though they could not find any bodies as there was nothing but ash, the Demon and the Witch made two graves for the child's parents, leaving everything else as it was. A few days later, after the boy had gotten used to the strange people who had taken him in, still unaware that the young man was the dreaded Demon Emperor that his parents said would get him if he was bad, they took him to where Lelouch and Cecilia had made the graves to put the names on them as they had no other information on the couple. The six of them then fell into a routine and it was never a real discussion that Thomas would stay with them. The boy himself was content with these people who were nothing like the monsters that his parents warned him about. After a few months, when the green-haired woman announced that she was pregnant, Thomas was excited for the first time sense the tragedy that separated him from his birth parents forever. When the little Enchantress herself was born, he could not have been happier to have someone that was younger than him, as even though her parents looked young, they acted older than any of the other three sometimes. Even when he found out that the raven-haired man was actually the Demon Emperor himself and that he and the pizza-obsessed woman were immortal, Thomas found that he really did not care who they may have been previously. All he cared about now was that they were his family, admittedly the seven of them were an odd family, but they are a family.

Thomas smiles slightly at his fond memories and at Addy chatting innocently with her aunt and mother as the four of them remove the generous amount of Cheese-kuns from the car. Three of them still a bit at what sounds like a muffled gunshot, the two women because they know what it means and the boy because he thinks he is imagining things. Thankfully though, the little girl hears nothing and keeps on going with her self-assigned task of moving a Cheese-kun almost as big as herself. Once the four of them finish the all-important job of putting the Cheese-kuns in their proper places, they go to the kitchen to retrieve the pizzas when the young Enchantress suddenly says cutely, "Auntie Sayo, what're you doing here? You need to wait your turn to get the pizza, you know."

The lime-haired Witch turns sharply at her daughter's words, looking towards the maid with an inquiring expression on her face, the question clear in her golden eyes.

"Ah, Mistress C2, Miss Addy, Lady Nunnally, Thomas, I see that you all are done with the Cheese-kuns. Master Lelouch will have to live with them now, I suppose. And no, Miss Addy, I'm not here for the pizza, I am retrieving fresh clothing for the Master. He, well, there was an accident and his clothes are… a mess," Sayoko says quickly, doing her best to ignore the stiffness of the Mistress and Empress at her explanation, both knowing full well why Master Lelouch's clothing is "a mess."

"I see. Thank you, Sayoko. Addy, Thomas, only grab what you can safely carry, please. Nunnally, if you would help them. I am going to have a talk with my husband," Cecilia says calmly, not giving away a hint of her true emotions. The others go on completing their tasks and her daughter runs past the rest of them to the back, shouting, "We have the pizza!"

The Empress and the boy follow closely after the little girl as the Witch walks swiftly past all gathered to the shed where she knows she will find her Demon. Sure enough, there he is, removing the blood-soaked shirt from his person.

"How many?" he hears wife asks softly yet sternly from behind him. "We, Nunnally and I, heard a gunshot and you're covered in more blood than what would come from one."

"Three. Cornelia with a knife, Xingke had a sword, and Tohdoh was the one with the gun," Lelouch states as he turns around to face the Witch.

"Really? That's it? I would have thought that there would have been more."

"There probably would have been but Suzaku, pleaded with them to stop. I guess that he had seen me die enough times in one day."

They are interrupted by a knock on the door and a voice saying, "I have your clothes, Master Lelouch. I will leave them…"

The maid stops speaking when the door opens and the Witch reaches out a hand to receive the small pile of clothing. Sayoko hands the pile to Cecilia, shuts the door, and walks off to join her family and friends with the pizza, but not before hearing a "Thank you" from inside the shed.

The Witch silently hands the Former Emperor of Britannia a towel that was included in the clothes, placing the actual clothing on a box near her. Lelouch wipes the blood from his body, equally silent, enjoying the peace provided by the presence of his wife. Once all of the blood is gone, he redresses but halts when the green-haired Code-barer moves in front of him, wrapping her arms around him and it is only then that the Demon realizes that is shaking.

"You are not alone, Lelouch. And they understand. Even if something else does happen, I will always be with you, Addy as well. We do have a contract, after all. That will never change," the Witch says softly in her husband's ear, not willing to let him suffer alone.

"Thank you, Cecilia," the Geass-eyed man says equally softly, earning a small smile from the woman. He kisses her cheek gently before pulling away and straightening his clothing. The Demon then offers his hand to the golden-eyed woman and when she puts her hand in his, the two of them move to the door to join their small family and large amount of others, Lelouch planning on having a little chat with a certain group of scientist. The warning he gave them earlier may not be enough to fully deter them from his family and they may need a bit more persuasion.


End file.
